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Changing behaviours – what I learned (part 2)
Part 2: How to make changes In the first part of this blog I talked about setting myself a challenge of using my bike every day for a week, in order to change my ‘transport habits’, and what I learned from that experiment. Now I’m going to explore what makes changing behaviour hard, and offer…
Changing behaviours – what I learned
Part 1: A self-experiment Saturday 8 June was the start of National Bike Week 2019. What a great opportunity for a post on my Facebook page encouraging people to get out on their bikes, I thought. I’ll say that I’m planning to use my bike every day this week. That gave me pause, though…
Walk yourself happier: 7 ways in which walking can help your mental health
Pause for a minute. Imagine that you’re in a wood. It’s quite light and open, with space between the trees……those beautiful, spreading oak trees, with great branches like arms that reach out as if to enfold you in a safe embrace. The sun filters through the leaves, dappling the ground below, and playing on your…
10 Stress Management tips: go easy on yourself with some simple ideas
Getting stressed about stress management? Searching online for ‘stress management’ brings up A LOT of advice and tips. Sometimes in itself that can be stress-inducing – “Oh bloody hell all the things I should be doing / need to do before I’ll feel better!” – which can add to the sense of pressure we feel.…
Permission to be wobbly
In telling yourself something isn’t worth getting upset about, there’s an implicit message that by being upset, there’s something wrong with you.
Therapist heal thyself
Historic patterns are always there to trip us up – even when it comes to self-care. Sometimes ‘getting it right’ means just giving it our best guess.
Why can’t we let ourselves be sad?
Listening to the inner critic. I had a conversation with a friend around New Year. We had both had periods during the festive season where we had been feeling sad in some way. Sad – what a lot that word contains. My friend used the words ‘sensitive’, ‘spiky’. My memory is of a mood of…
Drop the resolutions
Lightening the load as a new year arrives Some months ago I watched an interview with Shawn Achor, a positive psychology specialist, during an online conference about building resilience. One of his tips was around New Year’s resolutions. Instead of setting yourself resolutions, he suggested, ask yourself “What are 3 positive things I achieved last…
